Posted on 05/21/2007 1:31:42 AM PDT by bruinbirdman
Everyone I know seems to be reading the Bible these days in search of answers. That is usually a good thing but not always. In fact, too many of the Biblical discussions I get into with friends and family members relate to the “End Times” and whether they are upon us. That is a shame because reading the Bible can enrich one’s daily life provided one is not obsessed with using it as a device to decipher the future.
Because of one relatively simple error in dating one book of the New Testament, author Tim LaHaye has misled tens of millions of people into thinking that a great time of tribulation is near. He has Christians everywhere looking for signs of an emerging anti-Christ and, ultimately, in a cowardly fashion, looking forward to a time when Christ will rapture his church away from earthly troubles.
If Christians would simply study the New Testament themselves – instead of relying upon 21st Century “prophets” writing fictional books for 21st Century profits – they would arrive at a few very simple conclusions:
1. The Revelation to John was written around 65 AD, not 95 AD.
2. The anti-Christ was Nero, not some world figure yet to emerge in the 21st Century.
3. The tribulation occurred in the First Century around the time of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD.
4. The “rapture” never happened and it never will.
5. The words of Jesus in Matthew 24 plainly reveal that most of the discourse in The Revelation to John is based on events in the First Century.
Once an individual realizes he is stuck here on earth and will not be raptured away from all of his troubles, he can begin to read the Bible the way it was intended to be read. I have a word of advice for those who have never really thought about reading the Bible as an end in itself rather than as a means to some goal such as predicting the future. My advice is actually borrowed from a friend who received a moving card from his wife just a few months ago.
After receiving the cherished card from his wife, my friend would sneak into their bedroom late at night (she always fell asleep while he was finishing his last TV show). After giving her a kiss while she was sleeping, he would take the card off his dresser and go into the spare room to read it by the light of a small lamp.
There were certain lines he would read three and four times over: “It is a privilege to know you, to share myself with you,” “I never knew such a person could exist until I met you,” and “You lift my spirits to places where my troubles seem so much farther away.”
Be the first to read Townhall.com. Sign up today and receive Townhall.com delivered each morning to your inbox.
It was wonderful to hear that a dear friend had found his “soul mate” and all of the joy that comes from lifelong companionship. But, at the same time, I could not listen to his story without thinking of all the other friends I know who have suffered through a painful divorce or, in some cases, never even met someone with whom they share a special bond of love. And some are growing older and lonelier by the day.
But, recently, I received a new insight into what seems to be an unfair distribution of soul mates among God’s children. It came as I was listening to a pastor named “Mike” whose last name I do not even know. His message was broadcast from Port City Church in Wilmington to a theater rented out to handle the overflow of his growing congregation.
He urged each member of his church to read the First Letter of John during the coming week. He also urged them to read it as if it were written just for them by someone who is madly in love with them.
I was so intrigued by this take on the proper approach to reading the New Testament epistle that I immediately bought a copy of the English Standard Version – a version I’ve been meaning to read for quite some time. Later that night I opened it and started reading by the light of a small lamp:
“…Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling… I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake … Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure… We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him…”
After reading those lines, it occurred to me that I had only been skimming through this great epistle on my last several runs through the New Testament. My zeal to get to The Revelation to John has been such that I have hardly noticed those great words in the years following the attacks of 911.
We all need to learn to read the Word as if it were written for us personally by someone who could not love us more. When we cannot get enough of it in the here and now, the future seems so much less important. And a little uncertainty is hardly the end of the world.
God Bless you too. I hope to meet you in heaven one way or the other.
Thats the main thing.
Anyone who has accepted Jesus as Savior will be there.
When and how will probably never be agreed on in this life.
I believe in the rapture because imo The Bible teaches that.
Thanks for posting this, I was about to ask if there’s any firm proof to show that Revelation was written in AD 65 and not 96. It appears as if the reverse is true.
“Thats the main thing.”
I agree.
I have had a number of people break fellowship with me over this issue of eschatology. I personally do not believe that it is central to the faith but some people do.
God bless.
Um, yeah, Nero was an anti-Christ. But as scripture tells us, there will be many anti-Christs. (And there have been several already.)
“Then bust out your strong’s and find me rapture in the bible!”
# 1 Thessalonians 4:17
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
1 Corinthians 15:51-52 "Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed."
1 Thess 4:15-17: "According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever."
One can argue about the timing, but no one can deny the rapture without denying scripture.
1. The Rapture is yet to come. 2. We are to be ready by following God’s will and living each day as if it were our last.
Bingo! What I don't understand is how those who believe this happened in 70A.D. can justify their beliefs. If Revelation already happened what happened to the thousand year reign of Christ on the Earth and why we aren't living in paradise today?
"You just have to be objective when studying the text, which does not come easily to most good Christian folks ..."
I feel like I am fairly objective in this.
Please look at the following.
1 Thess.
For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
and
2 Thess
Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
First passage clearly describes a rapture.
Second passage makes it clear that before the Lord's return there will be a general rebellion or apostasy - then the "man of sin" is revealed. This is the anti-christ, who the Lord will destroy at his return.
To believe Nero in the Antichrist you would have to believe Jesus returned in the first century.
Nero may have been an "antichrist" - of which there are many according to John, but he could not have been the Antichrist proper.
I do not see any “rapture” there. and if you notice it is the ones that remain that meet the Lord not the ones taking the imaginary flying rescue ride. There are at least two camps on this .
http://www.historicist.com/articles2/rapture.htm
“I do not see any “rapture” there.”
Maybe because you don’t want to??? Because it is clearly there...
“Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air”
“...caught up together with them in the clouds”
You done stepped in it!
“...Cerinthus embraced chiliasm, a form of apocalyptic vision that depicted the millennium as a physical and material period.”
Papais, one of the earliest church fathers we have anything from, clearly believed in a physical, earthly kingdom.
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/papias.html
Later church fathers made the mistake of confusing the Church with the Millenial reign of Christ.
Or do you believe the Church father’s were infallable?
......This is a denial of the Scripture.
Nah, just a refutation of a 19th century heretic (Edward Irving) and one of his followers named John Darby. There is nothing in scripture that gives any credence to the doctrine of a "secret" coming of Jesus predating his return to judge the world. This is why there is [ahem] NO mention of this doctrine by ANY theologian prior to 1830 (and yes, I have read Grant Jeffrey's extremely dishonest attempt to refute this). It was simply unheard of BECAUSE...... the scriptures simply don't teach it. If you aren't looking for it because of other factors, you would NEVER surmise this doctrine from the clear teaching of the bible.
“No less a man than Martin Luthor himself put Revelations (and Hebrews I believe) in an appendix!”
That would be a strike against him in my book.
noone is so blind as he who refuses to see.
“noone is so blind as he who refuses to see.”
Now we’re trading Chinese proverbs?
Where’s your argument?
“The secret “rapture” never happened and it never will.”
You CHANGED the quote.
That’s a big time NO-NO.
Read the rest of the thread and get informed.
Why are you asking me this??
I was responding to Matchett-PI’s post to you. I included you becasue I thought you might find it interesting.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.